Since the advent of video games, gamers have been exploring their favorite games in an effort to maximize replayability and challenge. This could include skipping powerful items and weapons and attempting to finish the game with lesser equipment, finding ways to get into later areas much earlier than the game technically allows (called sequence breaking), and attempting to complete the game in the fastest possible manner.
With the rise in popularity of site like YouTube, this last type of play, known as ‘speed runs’, has become increasingly popular. In fact, entire sites such as Speed Demos Archives have cropped up to collect these attempts at speed runs. SDA alone has compiled runs for over 500 games across a multitude of systems both past and present. For the most part, speed running has little importance over being something fun to see for both the player and the viewer, but a relatively new group known as The Speed Gamers is giving speed running new significance.
Speed runs typically fall into two categories: Tool-assisted (TAS) and Non-tool-assisted (non-TAS). The line between the two types of runs is a little hazy. TAS runs include any use of technology separate from the game itself. This could include cheat devices like a Game Genie, turbo controllers, or the various tools built into emulators like slow motion and save states. Non-TAS runs only use what is allowed by the programming of the game to find the quickest way to the end.
Where the line blurs is with the use of glitches. Speed runners will often exploit glitches in a game’s programming to allow them to do something faster. For example, in Metroid Prime, it is possible to get to the Ice Beam without getting the Spider Ball because a glitch on the spider ball track that leads to the ice beam actually produces small invisible ledges that allow a player to get up the track if it is ascended in the right way.
Purists claim that glitches, while technically part of the programming, are actually against the spirit of the game in question, and consider the use of glitches against the rules of a Non-TAS run. Others feel that exploiting a glitch does not technically require the use of outside assistance, so it counts. For their part, SDA allows the use of most glitches in their runs (they are all Non-TAS with that one debatable exception), though they generally refuse submissions that exploit majors flaws that don’t require any skill to use.
For the past couple of years, I have been fascinated by speed runs. With a mixture of awe and frustration, tempered a little by a little self-pride, I regularly check out speed runs for some of my favorite games. Watching them makes me feel a bit inferior, as these players exhibit a level of skill that I will never achieve; the flip side to that, of course, is that I generally have better things to do than sit and play one game over and over and over and over (and over) to perfect every single aspect of it.
But still, I enjoy them. Watching a great athlete at the peak of their skill, or reading a book when an author is in the greatest groove of his or her career can be a great thing to behold. Sometimes I learn new techniques or paths, such as how it is actually possible to keep up high levels of speed in the later levels of Sonic the Hedgehog or how to get through areas undetected in the highest levels of the Metal Gear Solid games; often, I just watch for the spectacle. But I never really considered that speed running really meant anything in the grand scheme of things.
But about a week ago, I came across The Speed Gamers. The Speed Gamers is a group based in Fort Worth, TX who speed run for charity. Every few weeks, The Speed Gamers do a multi-day marathon of speed running, and they do a live stream of the gaming as they are playing. Since March 2008, they have completed twelve of these marathons and have raised over $80,000 for various charities. They have done marathons of game series such as Zelda, Metroid, and Metal Gear Solid, and in October 2008, they did a Halloween special where they hit up some horror-based games such as Resident Evil 4, Eternal Darkness, and Dead Space.
Most recently, they just completed a week long marathon where they attempted to play all of the main-line Final Fantasy games. For the purposes of this marathon, they not only accepted random donations, but they also sold off the rights to name characters and everything else that Final Fantasy games allow you to name. They didn’t quite complete their gaming goal (those games can be damned long), but they managed to raise $50,000 for ACT Today (Autism Care and Treatment), which was two-and-a-half times their initial goal.
Obviously, I didn’t watch all 168 hours of the marathon, but I checked in at various times to check on their progress. What was neat about the way they approached their playing was that they were generally not as “up” on their speed running techniques like other videos available on the web, but they were skilled enough to still do things in a relatively quick manner. It actually made the runs a little more fun to watch, as they came off as being a bit closer to the average gamer than other speed runners.
If speed running interests you in any way, I urge you to check them out. Even if you can’t/don’t want to donate, it is still fun to check out what they are doing. Their next planned marathon is a three day Mega Man marathon starting on August 14th for Earth Day Network. When they aren’t doing a live run, they are constantly streaming videos from their older runs.
The cynic in me does wonder how much it costs them to be constantly streaming all of this video, not to mention the live feeds during the marathons, and how much (if any) of the money they raise goes to cover their costs, but even so, it is all for good causes. It would be nice if they would offer their past marathons for download, even if they had to charge for them, but I cannot complain too much.
It never ceases to amaze me what people come up with in order to try and raise money for causes, and the geek in me is glad to see somebody figure out how to include video games in those attempts. They are obviously growing in popularity (they were recently covered on some local newscasts in the Dallas/FW area) as they raised more money for the Final Fantasy marathon than they did for the previous eleven marathons combined. I can only hope that they continue to grow.
